a form of hands-on, natural healing that uses universal life force energy . . . [a] vital life force energy that flows through all living things. This gentle energy is limitless in abundance and is believed to be a spiritual form of energy. The Reiki practitioner is the conduit between you and the source of the universal life force energy. . . You may experience the energy as sensations such as heat, tingling, or pulsing where the practitioner places her hands on your body, or you may feel these sensations move through your body to other locations. This is the energy flowing into you.

This “universal life force energy” is described as having certain positive effects on one’s own energy, such as “energetically balancing” one physically, replenishing one’s supply of energy, improving distribution of that energy in the body, and dissolving “energy blockages.” It also increases one’s “vibrational frequencies,” although how these frequencies relate to one’s energy, or to anything else for that matter, is not made clear. (more…)